


the sweeter the sun

by pterawaters



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Living Together, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Apocalypse, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23928379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: After those rocky first few weeks, the past six months had been pretty great. Steve got to have Nancy back, even if it was just half the time, and he and Jonathan had actually become friends. Good friends, even. Best friends. Why shouldn't Steve get to cuddle with his best friend? It wasn't like Tommy, or anyone else, was here to make fun of him for it. All that shit was the way things used to be.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 5
Kudos: 126





	the sweeter the sun

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for day five of [Stoncy Week 2020](https://stoncyweek2020.tumblr.com/), for the "playing with their hair while their head’s in your lap" prompt.

“Shelter’s locked down for the night,” Steve said, joining Nancy and Jonathan on the cushions they had spread out on the floor around the wood stove in the middle of the cabin. “Did we hear from Hawkins at all today?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, pointing to the HAM radio in the corner. There were wires going up from it, through the ceiling to the solar panels outside. “They’re doing well, want to set up a trade next week.”

“Oh, see if they have any flour,” Steve said, exhausted and laying down, his head in Nancy’s lap. “I miss bread.”

“I miss anything other than eggs and chicken,” Nancy said, pushing her fingers through Steve’s hair. 

He hummed happily in response. 

“Maybe we can get an apple sapling going this year,” Jonathan said before nudging Steve’s leg with his foot. “Did you fix that wobbly corner of the fence?”

Still enjoying Nancy’s fingers in his hair, Steve said, “Yeah, I did. Should hold up alright. Keep the foxes out, at least.”

He reached up, brushing his fingers across Nancy's face. She smiled down at him, then leaned over and kissed him. One kiss turned into a couple kisses and then Nancy’s tongue in his mouth.

“Hey,” Jonathan said from next to them. “Today’s my day.”

“Sorry,” Steve said, even though he wasn’t sorry at all. He needed attention _today_ , damn it! And if the stupid rules the three of them had been trying to live under for the past six months said he couldn't get that attention from Nancy, he was going to get it elsewhere.

Steve sat up, shifted over, and lied back down, this time with his head in Jonathan's lap. He found one of Jonathan's hands, put it on his hair, and closed his eyes. Jonathan sighed, but began carding his fingers through Steve's hair anyway. It felt nice, even if Jonathan didn't have nails long enough to scratch across Steve's scalp. 

Jonathan and Nancy started talking about some book that they had both read recently, because that was a thing they did. Steve still missed TV. And movies. The books the others read were boring and he hadn't brought his reading glasses with him when they fled Hawkins and found this place, so books made his head hurt. Sometimes he could stand listening to Nancy or Jonathan read one of their books out loud, but he usually fell asleep and lost track of the story.

When he wasn't sleeping or working on keeping this place of theirs running, Steve tended to dick around on the guitar Jonathan had found in the back room of that one gas station. Every few days, they had enough power stored up from the solar panels to play the boom box for an hour or so. He was getting close to learning one or two songs, just by ear. It wasn't like there was much of anything else to do. Not yet. Not while society was still building back up from the ruins.

Sighing and half asleep, Steve turned over, burying his face against Jonathan's stomach. Jonathan went tense, and Steve's sleepy brain didn't get why. Then he realized that this sort of intimate cuddling was something he'd usually do with Nancy, not something he'd ever done with Jonathan. Just before Steve was about to haul himself out of Jonathan's lap, his hand returned to Steve's hair. 

Huh. 

Well, if Jonathan was cool with it, Steve wasn't going to move. He was too comfortable to even think about moving any time soon. Why hadn't he thought of doing this before? Well, he knew why. 

Steve knew that, after ending up here with Nancy and Jonathan and no one else, being allowed to have Nancy every other day was a miracle. If Nancy had loved Steve a little less, or Jonathan had been a little more jealous, it would've been just the two of them together, Steve third-wheeling it alone. The envy would've gotten to him eventually. He probably would've tried to walk by himself back to Hawkins. If he'd survived the trip, which was far from a given, he would be leaving Nancy and Jonathan to run and defend this place on their own.

He couldn't do that.

After those rocky first few weeks, the past six months had been pretty great. Steve got to have Nancy back, even if it was just half the time, and he and Jonathan had actually become friends. Good friends, even. Best friends. Why shouldn't Steve get to cuddle with his best friend? It wasn't like Tommy, or anyone else, was here to make fun of him for it. All that shit was the way things _used to be_.

The way things were now? Some things were worse (no TV, no movies, very little music), but some things were better. With every day that passed, Steve felt less and less like he had to watch every little thing he did and said. Nancy and Jonathan hadn't kicked him out yet. Hell, Jonathan even sought him out when Nancy was being pissy, or when he otherwise needed help. They seemed to like the person he _was_ , not the person they thought he should be.

Steve realized he’d been dozing when he didn’t hear Nancy’s voice anymore. He turned onto his back and found that, yep Nancy wasn’t in the room anymore. Jonathan had a book in one hand, his other hand still in Steve’s hair, and he was looking down at Steve with an amused expression. 

“Sorry, man,” Steve said, tapping the back of his hand lazily against Jonathan’s chest. “You shoulda woke me up.”

A little bit of a laugh in his voice, Jonathan said, “You looked too comfortable, like maybe you needed a nap.” He set his book aside and ran his fingers back through Steve’s hair again. 

It felt good, and Steve shivered, closing his eyes. “Mm, it’s better sleeping here. Since it’s my turn to sleep alone tonight, and all.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, sounding almost sad as he rested his free hand on Steve’s chest. It felt nice having his hand there, so Steve covered Jonathan’s hand with his own. After a few more strokes of his hand through Steve’s hair, Jonathan asked, “You ever get sick of sleeping alone?”

“Every time I have to do it,” Steve admitted, opening his eyes and looking up at Jonathan. “Why?”

Looking away, Jonathan shrugged. “Just seems kind of stupid sometimes.”

Terrified that Jonathan was about to call off the whole “sharing Nancy” deal that the three of them had agreed to, Steve curled his fingers around the hand on his chest. Carefully, Steve asked, “What seems stupid?”

“Having two different bedrooms,” Jonathan said. Then, his voice just above a whisper, he added, “We could all fit in one.”

“Come on,” Steve said with a sigh. “You don’t want me there, watching when you guys… I mean, I feel bad enough that I can hear most of what–”

“I can hear you guys, too,” Jonathan admitted, quick, like he was ashamed of it. The hand he had in Steve’s hair tugged, just for half a second before he realized and said, “Sorry.”

Except, between the pleasant, if surprising, sensation on his scalp, and remembering the last time he’d heard Nancy and Jonathan in the next room, his dick started to take notice and fill. Licking his suddenly-dry lips, Steve looked up at Jonathan, who still wasn’t meeting his eye, and asked, “When you hear us, do you ever…?”

Steve saw the moment when Jonathan caught his meaning. Furrowing his brow, Jonathan looked down at Steve. “Why would you ask that? Do you…?”

The only answer he gave was a slow, wide smile.

“Steve!” Jonathan hissed, keeping his voice low. (How late was it anyway?) Except, Jonathan didn’t do what Steve expected and dump him off his lap. Instead, still whispering, Jonathan demanded, “How often? Every time?”

“Sometimes I fall asleep first,” Steve admitted, pushing his head against Jonathan’s hand, still craving _something_.

Still frowning, Jonathan pushed his fingers back through Steve’s hair again. Once. Twice. Each time, his fingers tugged a bit too, and Steve started craving _more._

Watching Steve’s face, Jonathan asked, “Is it…? Is it just _Nancy_ you listen to, or…?”

If Jonathan had asked him that _before_ , before the last six months, Steve would have lied. He would have said, “Of course I only listen to Nancy, she’s the only one I think about that way.”

But it wasn’t before anymore, it was now, and Steve knew what he was craving.

He let go of the hand over his heart and reached up to touch Jonathan’s face. His skin wasn’t as smooth as Nancy’s, but the feeling of stubble under his fingertips wasn’t unpleasant. Jonathan had a worried furrow in his brow, but he wasn’t pushing Steve away. Not yet. So, Steve reached up further, using his thumb to smooth away the worried lines in Jonathan’s face.

A slight smile replaced the worried frown, and Steve gave into the temptation to touch Jonathan’s lips. He brushed his thumb along Jonathan’s lower lip, the skin sticking and tugging until Jonathan’s tongue swept out, wetting his lips. It also flicked across Steve’s thumb and it occurred to Steve that this was the same tongue that had made Nancy moan the night before last, when Steve had tried not to hear them, but did anyway.

Steve wondered how that tongue would feel, dragging up his cock, and suddenly he was so fucking horny he couldn’t breathe. He met Jonathan’s dark eyes, his own likely wide with shock, and then suddenly they were both moving. Steve met Jonathan in the middle, curling up and pressing his lips to Jonathan’s in a hungry, desperate kiss. 

The stubble around them was rough, but Jonathan’s lips were soft, and clever. Jonathan got his legs out from under Steve and followed him back down to the floor, licking into Steve’s mouth, meeting him kiss-for-kiss. Needing him closer, as close as he could get, Steve wrapped his arms around Jonathan and pulled him in. His hip ended up pressed against Steve’s hard cock, and Steve couldn’t help but thrust against him, groaning at the feeling.

 _This_ is what he’d been craving.

Jonathan must have been craving this too, because Steve could feel Jonathan’s dick grinding against his thigh. Needing to feel skin, Steve pulled up on Jonathan’s shirt, relieved when he could finally run his hands across Jonathan’s back. 

Steve was just starting to think about getting Jonathan’s shirt off him when he heard the unmistakable sound of Nancy clearing her throat. 

Jonathan froze for a second before pulling his tongue out of Steve’s mouth and looking up in the direction of his bedroom. Steve looked that way too, kinda having to look upside down. Nancy stood there in her nightgown, and he was relieved to see that she looked more like she was amused than angry.

“Are you boys coming to bed?” she asked, like it was a simple question, like she hadn’t just caught them making out like the world was about to end. Again.

Steve couldn’t help but ask, “Both of us?”

Shrugging, Nancy said, “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

It only took half a second of meeting Jonathan's eye to clock the fact that they were totally on the same page when it came to this. They scrambled to their feet, still holding hands as they followed her back into Jonathan’s bedroom and onto the bed. 

Giggling, Nancy kissed Steve, then she kissed Jonathan, and said, “I was starting to worry you guys would _never_ figure it out.”

Steve rolled his eyes, because _of course_ Nancy knew before either of them, and then he reached across her to grab Jonathan and kiss him on the mouth again. Jonathan laughed, but he kissed Steve back and put his fingers in Steve’s hair.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought of the fic in a comment below! You can also find me on [tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters) or in my [stoncy discord server](https://discord.gg/ShMhY8z).


End file.
